Giants RB Brandon Jacobs gains perspective along with starting role

Brandon Jacobs and Ahmad Bradshaw are close friends. Both have been promoted and demoted this season.

By Zach Berman and Mike Garafolo
Star-Ledger Staff

Kim Jacobs sat three rows from the top of Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium when she started receiving similar text messages: “Why does this person have Brandon’s helmet in the stands?” She responded it might be a replica, not knowing that her husband, Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, hurled his helmet moments earlier after he was pulled from the game.

Upon returning to the locker room, Brandon called Kim. “I promise you I didn’t mean to,” Brandon told his wife. He had been dealing with the frustration of losing his starting role — without any explanation or indication — since the start of training camp.

His frustration had been exhibited in confrontational encounters with reporters, but this incident, which revealed Jacobs’ boiling point and drew a $10,000 fine by the NFL, can now be viewed as a seminal point in Jacobs’ wayward season.

He will start today’s game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, reclaiming the spot that he lost to close friend Ahmad Bradshaw before the season started. It concludes a week during which Jacobs received a $20,000 fine for unsportsmanlike conduct toward Eagles fans in last Sunday’s loss in Philadelphia, which Jacobs plans to appeal.

When Jacobs receives the first Giants carry this afternoon, it would be easy to paint a portrait of the full circle of a season that could have been lost. But for Jacobs, the season has been about acceptance more than change.

“I’m playing for my teammates, my backs and my running backs coach,” Jacobs said this week. “I want to stay around and do the best I can to help this team win. I don’t care how. Six hundred yards in the air, 500 on the ground. I really have to get it done. Let’s just win. That’s where I’m at in my career now.”

The same player who threw his helmet into the stands in Indianapolis and cursed off reporters earlier this season is the one who’s become a father figure to Plaxico Burress’ children while Burress is imprisoned, the one who drives young kids home when he sees them on the street and believes they’re out too late, the one who attended Michael Boley’s charity bowling event to support autism less than 24 hours after the Giants lost to the Cowboys.

His newfound starter’s role might be temporary. He insists it is. He’s not allowing himself to revel in the joy of the promotion because he’s experienced the doldrums of a demotion. But Jacobs has at least developed perspective. Even if the player from the seven weeks before the Indianapolis game is the same, the outlook in the 10 weeks since is different.

“It was like something big had to happen to put it all into perspective, I guess,” Kim Jacobs said. “He was genuinely sorry. He had no intentions of hurting anyone. Thank God he didn’t. ... He did have genuine regret and he did feel really bad all of it went down that way. It kind of opened his eyes.”

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Mitch Stringer/US PresswireRunning back Brandon Jacobs has been fined twice during a turbulent season.

Jacobs arrived at training camp with physical evidence of his motivation for 2010. After rushing for a career-low 3.7 yards per carry in 2009, Jacobs changed his body.

At 28, Jacobs dropped his body fat from 9 percent in 2009 to 6 percent at the start of camp this season, the by-product of stressing speed and agility during the offseason instead of strength. By Kim’s admission, Jacobs trained harder than any point in his career and has been devoted to weekly massage and acupuncture sessions.

When he arrived at training camp, Jacobs learned he was the No. 2 running back on a depth chart, according to Kim. He did not receive a warning or meeting with the coaching staff. Neither a phone call nor text message came before he arrived in Albany.

He lost his spot to Bradshaw, the emerging fourth-year veteran with whom Jacobs had grown close. Kim did not understand why Jacobs was a backup, and it was Jacobs who had to calm her down.

Veteran safety Deon Grant tried motivating the running back by reminding him of the words of the critics. “You got to make the (team) pay for it,” Grant told Jacobs.

After he did not receive a single carry in the preseason finale, Jacobs told ESPN.com the NFL is a “cutthroat, backstabbing business” and that it’s “almost hard to stay positive in a situation like this.”

Jacobs tried to defuse his comments, but he still stewed. He cut short an interview when asked about his role before the season opener, leaving the scene with an expletive. This time, it was Kim who needed to assuage her husband.

“I tried to stay out of it as much as I can with that,” Kim said. “But it got to a point where I finally had to say something — I don’t even remember what it was at this point — because nobody else was seeming to get the point across to him.”

He rushed 12 times for 44 yards in a season-opening win over Carolina before Coughlin removed Jacobs from the game a week later in Indianapolis when Coughlin did not think

Jacobs was powering up the middle like the coaching staff wanted. That’s when the helmet incident occurred.

Jacobs met with both Coughlin and general manager Jerry Reese at their request the day after the game. Jacobs said his issue was the lack of an explanation, which “lit the dynamite.” That was discussed in the meeting, and he has not raised the issue since.

Coughlin also addressed the professionalism he wants Jacob to adhere to while dealing with reporters.

“Brandon’s one of those guys who’s outspoken and likes to let people know what he thinks, whether it’s good or bad,” Tuck said. “He felt, ‘you signed me to this big contract, let me go out there and prove it.’ And he wasn’t playing well. He’ll tell you that. Sometimes, to get to your potential, you’ve got to step back and look at things.”

After recounting his own experience returning from injury, Tuck offered his revelation that helps explain Jacobs’ subsequent improvements.

The dance came back in Week 5. After scoring a first-quarter touchdown to give the Giants a 14-point lead in a 34-10 victory over the Texans, Jacobs returned to the sideline and unleashed the “Worldwide” shimmy he’s displayed after previous touchdowns in his career.

“My enthusiasm is right where it needs to be,” Jacobs said after the game. “I was kind of screwed up mentally last week. But I got past it and here we are today.”

The victory was the second of a five-game winning streak during which Jacobs averaged 6.1 yards per carry and a touchdown per game. He accepted his role behind Bradshaw and took every chance available to praise his friend.

“It shows his professionalism. It shows his ability to adjust to adversity,” veteran linebacker Keith Bulluck said. “Everyone’s human. You’re allowed to respond to whatever situation you’re in. He might have responded and do what you needed to do, but after that, he was about the greater good of the team.”

Jacobs is quietly averaging 5 yards per carry this season, matching career highs set in 2007 and 2008. But after the Giants netted only 168 combined yards in consecutive losses — and Bradshaw fumbled in both — the coaching staff again used to depth chart to send a message.

“Consistency with the running game,” offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride said. “That’s the reason that we made the change initially is we weren’t running the ball as well as we thought we should last year, so we gave Ahmad a chance. He did some great things for us and now we’re asking Brandon Jacobs to do the same.”

Provided the platform this week, Jacobs did not act redemptive. He did not view the change as his reward. Instead, he stumped for Bradshaw. He called the move temporary and said if the Giants want to win, they need to feed Bradshaw the ball.

Jacobs insisted it would not be awkward this week with Bradshaw. He described Bradshaw as his “little brother from another mother” and Kim called the two “BFFs” with “the biggest bromance in the NFL.”

Jacobs said this week how much he enjoys watching Bradshaw run. Their lockers are next to each other and Jacobs listened to Bradshaw’s interview with reporters, visibly disappointed in a question he thought was unfair to his training camp roommate.

During games, they push each other. When Bradshaw fumbled last week, Jacobs confronted Bradshaw about taking care of the ball. When Jacobs scores, Bradshaw is often the first on the sideline to greet him.

They laugh together, like the week before Halloween this season, when Bradshaw wore fangs in his mouth as a costume. They cope together, like when Jacobs became a willing listener while Bradshaw recovered from the death of his father in the 2009 offseason.

Now the anger of a demotion — and pride of a promotion — have been experienced by both. After a turbulent training camp and preseason, Jacobs said “him and I both know what this business is like.” Because during a season that’s come full circle, Jacobs hasn’t changed. He’s merely gained perspective.

“I think now he’s just more cautious about believing or accepting praise or the promotion back,” Kim said. “Next week, it could be right back to the way it was.”